With its Bet.pt brand among the leading sports betting operators in Portugal, Bet Entertainment is setting its sights on the Latin American market with its new offering Vivagol. Bet Entertainment’s COO, Alberto Alfieri, says that for this to be a success, there are a number of key considerations for lawmakers to address.
Next, part of the interview published in iGaming Business:
From your point of view, what will be the most crucial elements of a successful regulatory regime for sports betting in Brazil?
There are a number of elements that must be considered to avoid mistakes, and to ensure Brazilian regulation does not fail:
- An open number of licences: A limited number of licences would definitely aid unlicensed operators and allow a few ‘sharks’ to eat up market share, creating an unfair standard of competition.
- A multi-vertical market: A satisfactory range of products and verticals, such as casino, virtual sports and fantasy sports, would help build a thriving regulated market, and wouldn’t give unlicensed operators an advantage over legal competitors.
- Discard the monopoly model: The monopoly model doesn’t help the credibility of a business, it doesn’t allow for fair competition, and it doesn’t aid the natural evolution of the industry. Take the privatisation of [Brazilian national lottery operator] Lotex as an example; it has been attempted seven times, but has still not been finalised, and that’s because the starting point was wrong.
- Proper payments regulation: It is currently very difficult for online operators that want to offer viable payment options to customers to do so. They should automatically be able to partner financial institutions once licensed.
- Clear lines of communication: It is of paramount importance that fluid and continuous communication channels between operators and regulators are established. It’s a new market, and the regulator is new to gambling regulation. We all need to collaborate to make this a success.
- Proper responsible gambling policies: It is very important that operators can share their experiences with the regulator and that a central system for managing responsible gambling is established. I am talking about a government-maintained self-exclusion register, for instance, and also a responsible gambling committee comprising government and operator representatives.
What can the Brazilian government learn from Portugal’s experience of regulating igaming? What elements of Portuguese regulation should be imitated, and what needs to be different?
Portugal was definitely a different example compared to many other European regulated markets. Like few, Portugal went for a turnover tax on sport betting, for instance. Many may think that this is not the best approach, because from a business perspective, most of the revenues go on taxes.
Now, the Portuguese model is not perfect due to the incremental tax rate, which ranges from 8% on turnover up to €30m, then 16% for turnover over €30m.
But the turnover tax allowed the regulator to control the industry and made sure that the igaming offerings did not exceed consumer demand. If we take the examples of Sweden and the UK, it seems clear that the extremely low gross gaming revenue tax model created an environment that damaged both customers and the industry.
When there are too many operators in a market, when there is too much advertising on TV at any hour of the day, when the regulations allow and effectively invites hundreds of operators to aggressively compete, the victims are the players and the general public. As a consequence, the whole industry suffers. This, I would say, could be the biggest point to take from Portuguese regulation.
Alberto Alfieri will be speaking on the panel session “Building transparency: how to construct a regulatory body which allows for cross-industry dialogue” at this year’s Brazilian Gaming Congress, which takes place at the Hotel Tivoli Mojfarrej in Sao Paulo from June 23 to 25.
Source: GMB / iGaming Business
